Sancerre from Sebastien Riffault, in this
particular case Akmenine 09, it’s a bruised apple flesh coloured golden, it’s
far from clear. The nose is manifestly oxidative, all bruised apple notes, but
yet somehow staying just on the right side of fully acetyl aldehyde. There’s a
complex ripe cool climate fruit character that’s present, there are some
aromatic almost, but not quite floral elements. The whole shouldn’t work, but
yet on drinking the wine, it’s thrillingly good, rollercoaster acidity, the
whole palette seems to be all tight muscle, even the oxidative notes, which
usually loll about like love handles on a well fed belly. It just all seems to
work.
What’s worse is that when you compare the
Akemenine with Skeveldra one of his other cuvees the differences are so evident that it
forces consideration of the question as to how the winesz can be so marked by a
chemical process and yet still show much more of the terroirs from whence they
came than most (if not all) other Loire Sauvignons.
2 comments:
He has a quite a few more than two SB cuvees I think! Personally I have found the sulphured ones a little more sucessful, as well as being cheaper. These definitely play with oxidation, and for me not always to great effect, tho as you say- sometimes they sing!
I'm not quite sure why I wrote is such that it implies he's only got the two cuvees, I know full well he mas many more. I agree about the lightly sulphured cuvee being excellent, though I rather like taunting myself with the unsulphured ones.
(will change wording on the post)
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